Matthew 13:1-23
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
February 9, 2025
For the second week in a row, we are reflecting on the first parable of seven that Jesus tells about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13. What Jesus says about how to take in this parable’s meaning and inspiration shows us how to do that with all parables. The key is to put ourselves out to figure out how to live out the parables. We must seek to “get” them – and that means, not just getting our minds around their message, but even more getting close to the Parable-Teller Himself. For it is He who enables us both to understand them and to put their truth into practice. So let’s give Him the opportunity to do exactly that with us now!
The four kinds of soil Jesus speaks of in this parable represent four kinds of human soul. We might be one or the other. We might alternate between several. Whether we are hard soil, shallow soil, thorn-infested soil, good soil, sometimes one, sometimes another, depends on our response to the word that is sown. What’s at stake is the harvest of righteousness and joy our lives might produce.
A hard soul is like a footpath that has been packed down by the weight of many walkers and made as impenetrable as solid stone. Seed falling on it bounces off and lies on the surface, easy pickings for hungry birds to grab and fly away with.
While few of us are consistently that impervious to God’s word, some of us are selectively that impervious. I think of the deacon in a Pentecostal church who was exclaiming his Amen to every call from the pastor to keep each of the Ten Commandments. The pastor thundered, “Thou shalt not kill!”, and the deacon cried out, “Preach it, pastor!”; and the pastor thundered, “Thou shalt not steal!”, and the deacon cried out, “Keep throwing strikes, pastor!”; and the pastor thundered, “Thou shalt not commit adultery!” – and the deacon leaned back, folded his arms across his chest, and cried out, “Watch it, pastor! You’re meddling now!”
We are all prone to wall off some part of our life and hold it back from the governance of God. I remember hearing how, when a troop of soldiers in the Middle Ages converted to the Christian faith, some of them, as they were immersed in the Rhine River for baptism, held their swords above the water so that they could wield their weapons without Christian inhibition. We might not want to hold back from God a weapon, but some of us want to hold back from God our wallet, free time or pet self-delusions. It takes vigilance and diligence to refrain from growing hard and impervious to a word that challenges us or threatens our comfortable status quo.
A shallow soul is like a stretch of ground that at the surface has soft, receptive topsoil, but has an inch or two underneath a stratus of impenetrable rock. Those with such a soul harbor the seed of the word with initial exuberance, and provide it space enough in which to sink some short roots and from which to above the surface. But they offer too little depth to enable the plant to endure the scorching sun. They may feel the truth in God’s word, but they lack the resolve to consistently follow-through on it in action. They want for the sustaining determination to persevere faithfully through tough times of “trouble” or “persecution”, and therefore what they produce will soon “wither away”. They just don’t delve far enough into the benefits of following Jesus to be ready and willing to pay the costs of following Jesus when it, say, requires sacrifices for love’s sake or incurs fierce opposition from the enemies of God.
A thorn-infested soul is like a stretch of ground that is open to, and welcoming of, every kind of seed. Those with such a soul house both good seed and bad seed. They don’t discriminate, and thus they don’t prioritize. They say No to nothing because they’ve been seduced by the unrealistic idea we can have it all.
But some plants can’t survive together. And it is the least desirable of them, the thorns, that choke and kill off the better plants. For example, “the cares of the world” – that is, fear over pain or deprivation – and “the lure of wealth” – that is, the delusion that money buys happiness – are more immediate and initially intense in their payoffs; and thus they tempt us to let such concerns hog the nutrients in the soil of our soul, such as our focused attention and adamant aspiration. They then deprive us of greater and longer-lasting payoffs, such as peace with God and power from the Spirit.
So what kind of soil is a good soul like? Jesus talks about soil in which seed “bears fruit and yields” up to a hundredfold; but He doesn’t lay out the qualities of good soil as He does for other soil. Maybe He expects us to think of the opposite of the qualities the others manifest. That is, unlike hard soil, good soil is open and receptive to God’s word; unlike shallow soil, it gives the roots of the word access to the deepest places of a person; and unlike thorn-infested soil, it keeps what grows from the word free and clear of preoccupations that choke it.
Actually, Luke in his Gospel’s account of this teaching moment for Jesus quotes Him saying something that neither Matthew nor Mark quote. Luke reports Jesus describing the souls of good soil this way: “They are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit that endures.”
In other words, the souls of good soil provide a home for the word in every part of their being and embrace it there with patience and perseverance. They follow up on its nurture and development – by weekly worship, daily devotions and other spiritual disciplines – as it works its wonders in them and produces wonderful works through them in service of others. They become the faithful ones who, Jesus in John’s Gospel says, abide in Him and let His word abide in them, and thereby bear a harvest of much fruit. May the soil of each soul here become that fruitful and bring forth for the Lord a hundredfold yield!
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